Chicago Bulls general manager Gar Forman emerged early this week to give gathered scribes the much-sought-after update on the health of the franchise’s bedrock player, point guard Derrick Rose.

It has been eight months since Rose injured his knee in the opening game of the playoffs, and eight months was the date given on the early end of the Rose return spectrum. Twelve months was the late side, and as things stand, we should wind up almost exactly in the middle.

Not that Forman went into great detail about Rose’s return. Nor did he go into small detail about it. There were no details. Rose is with the team, he has been practicing, but when it comes to getting him back on the floor, the team is sticking with its tight-lipped policy.

“We’re not trying to be evasive,” Forman said. “We have just stayed true to the process of taking things step by step, knowing we have to get him back to 100 percent. Once he’s at 100 percent and cleared medically, he’ll be ready to play. We’re not going to skip steps.”

Forman isn’t being entirely truthful—of course the Bulls are being evasive. They should. It’s a good policy. Timetables are nifty tools for the media and for fans, but they don’t do much good for anyone else.

If a player returns ahead of schedule, it invites speculation that the team rushed him back. If a player is taking too long, there is speculation that there has been a setback, or that maybe the training staff goofed. When it comes to world-class athletes, injury rehab can be unpredictable, and, thus, there is nothing to be gained when return-date predictions are made.

We saw it in Dallas, where Dirk Nowitzki expressed frustration with the time it was taking to rehab a knee injury, and where his teammates seemed to feel that his return would all but assure them a long string of winning, which has certainly not been the case.

Maybe the Sixers could be praised for the attempt to be open about Bynum’s injuries and the procedures he has been undergoing. But the net effect was to prepare fans for an impending appearance of Bynum in a Sixers uniform; going back to the original report from the team about Bynum’s injury, in late September, the assumption was that Bynum would be ready in three weeks. But it’s January, and still no Bynum.

Fact is, the Bulls shouldn’t explain anything to anyone about Rose. They’re much better off keeping their healthy players focused on the task at hand while keeping the expectations of fans manageable. They have been inconsistent this year—they lost last Monday at home to the Bobcats, and then beat Miami on the road three days later—but they are in step with the Pacers in the Central Division and, despite a short bench that had to absorb the departure of defensive ace Omer Asik in the offseason, rank in the Top 5 in defensive efficiency.

To indulge in too much Rose speculation only takes the focus off the task at hand, which is getting the Bulls in position to make a strong stretch run when and if Rose comes back in late February or early March.

After beating the Cavaliers on Monday, Bulls forward Taj Gibson said, “When we are right, we are a tough team to beat. We have some of the toughest guys in the league on our team.”

He is right—even without Rose, the Bulls are a tough team to beat. But to keep their attention on that, the team has to avoid too much Rose talk. So far, so good.